What is paleontology? Why are there so few paleontologists? Is it because of a problem? thank you

Paleontology is a kind of creature that lived in the historical and geological era of the earth, and now it has basically become extinct. Including ancient plants (reeds, fish scales, etc. ), ancient invertebrates (trilobites), animals (currency insects, trilobites, ammonites, etc. ) and vertebrate paleontology (dinosaurs, archaeopteryx, mammoths, etc. ). After the death of paleontology, except for a few (such as mammoths in frozen soil and insects in amber) who still kept their original tissue structure due to special conditions, most of them have been calcified, carbonized and silicified, or filled with other mineralization and fossilized alternately, forming fossils with only the shape, structure and impression of the original hardware. (Take a good look below)

The breakthrough goal of "358" prospecting started from 20 10 and gradually approached the time node of "3 years". Outside some areas with outstanding prospecting achievements, the prospecting process in some areas has been delayed. Faced with this situation, some experts have warned that the lack of information in the previous large-scale basic survey is also a factor that cannot be ignored in the prospecting process. However, the key to the accuracy of basic geological survey data is the identification of paleontological fossils. Paleontological stratigraphy is an important part of basic geological work. Nowadays, this major is facing the problem of talent shortage and vacancy. In this case, how will the national basic geological work be carried out? This has become a concern of many industry experts.

"Fossil identification can't find anyone" puzzles geological prospecting units

"A few days ago, during the construction of a project in Dongwuzhumuqin Banner, Inner Mongolia, our institute collected fossils, but we couldn't find a place to identify them." Shao Jidong, vice president and chief engineer of Inner Mongolia Geological Survey Institute, told the reporter, "If the strata are unclear and the basic geological background of the metallogenic belt is unclear, it will affect the determination of the metallogenic belt and the process of prospecting."

The identification of paleontological fossils is of great significance to the determination of stratigraphic age. Accurate determination of stratigraphic age is an important part of basic geological survey. Only in this way can we study the metallogenic background and conditions more effectively. If the preliminary basic geological survey data is not enough, it will greatly affect the subsequent prospecting process. "When doing a basic regional survey, the collected fossils have not been professionally identified and the results cannot be obtained. Even if the regional survey data is finally formed, there is no accurate conclusion on the determination of some specific stratigraphic ages. These regional survey data that were later adopted by people are not the most detailed and accurate. " Shao Jidong said.

To study the history of crustal development, we must first understand the history of paleontology, not only because the history of paleontology is an integral part of geological history, but also because paleontology data are needed to study the history of sedimentary development and tectonic movement. Therefore, it can be said that paleontology is an important basic discipline of geology.

Under the background of rapid economic development, paleontology is closely related to land resources, oil, coal and chemical industry, and the exploration and development of oil and coal resources can only be located by paleontology knowledge. So paleontologists are extremely popular. Why are paleontological researchers so hard to find?

"In the past, research institutes in various regions were able to identify paleontology, and specialized professionals graduated from paleontology, including corals, trilobites, amoebas and ancient plants. At present, the geological prospecting institutes and geological prospecting units in North China, Northeast China and other provinces I know have basically not studied paleontology, and there will be no paleontologist engaged in mining. " Shao Jidong said.

"Dualisation" of Professional Development with Uneven Hot and Cold

In the words of Zhou Zhonghe, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the vertebrate paleontology Institute of Paleoanthropology in China, paleontology is a "hot" and "unpopular" field. "Hot" means that this field is highly concerned internationally, even higher than that at home, and it is also an area of public interest. When it comes to "unpopular", paleontology involves mostly unpopular traditional disciplines: morphology, taxonomy and anatomy. These disciplines, which are called "traditions" or "classics", are almost "extinct" in other fields in China.

In recent years, Chinese scholars have made a series of achievements in the field of paleontology and stratigraphy, which have attracted much attention at home and abroad. The discovery of "Chengjiang Fauna", the origin of birds, angiosperms and multicellular metazoa has made more and more people interested in paleontology. The research achievements in global boundary stratotype, mass extinction and restoration have established the international status of paleontology in China. Henrry Gee, editor of the British magazine Nature, once wrote: "China has the best fossils and the best paleontologists."

Many people will have questions, how can such brilliant achievements be "no successor"? In fact, even in the hot research institutions of paleontology and stratigraphy, there is an unsustainable situation of talents. Judging from the enrollment situation in recent 10 years, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, known as one of the three major paleontology research centers in the world, has been "stretched" in terms of talent reserve. A wide range of knowledge, high level of computer and foreign languages, but obvious lack of professional knowledge are the "symbolic" characteristics of college students who have just graduated from this major in recent years. As a result, very few talents can stay in scientific research institutions. According to relevant data, the research team of paleontology in China has been shrinking in recent ten years. According to preliminary statistics, most of the more than 3,000 members of the Paleontology Society have retired, and there are less than 800 experts who really fight in paleontology posts.

According to Jia Zhihai, a professor at Hefei University of Technology, Peking University resumed its paleontology major on 20 10. At present, Peking University, Nanjing University and Shenyang Normal University all offer undergraduate paleontology majors, among which Shenyang Normal University established the first paleontology college in China on 20 1 1, and it is also the only professional college named after paleontology in the world. However, the overall enrollment of this major is very small, and the number of undergraduate students in Peking University and Nanjing University is within 10 every year. The specific enrollment scale of Shenyang Normal University is still unclear.

In the current discipline system, the postgraduate's "Paleontology and Stratigraphy" is a two disciplines. At present, most universities in China with first-class postgraduate students in geology basically have paleontology majors, but the annual enrollment of this major in each school is mostly "single digits". In addition to universities, the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of vertebrate paleontology and Paleoanthropology, and the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Geological Sciences also enroll students, but there are only a handful of them. According to a master student majoring in Paleontology and Stratigraphy in China Geo University, more than13 of the students in this major chose majors other than this major, and most of them were transferred.

"For paleontology, a special basic discipline, we must reconsider the way of talent training," said Yang Xiangning, former vice president of the School of Earth Sciences of Nanjing University.

Discipline adjustment has caused a talent gap?

65438-0997, the state adjusted the catalogue of paleontology undergraduate majors, and universities suspended the enrollment of paleontology and stratigraphy majors. Even if some colleges and universities retain their majors, they rarely recruit full staff, resulting in a situation of "green and yellow" for a period of time. The shortage of talents has affected the development of disciplines and even the continuation of professional education.

In Yang Xiangning's view, the "rise and fall" of paleontology and stratigraphy is closely related to social needs. In the early days of the founding of New China, in order to meet the needs of national economic construction, the country carried out large-scale basic geological survey and mineral resources exploration, which also brought the prosperity of paleontology and stratigraphy. The large-scale specialty adjustment in the late 1990s was mainly to solve the problem of too fine division of undergraduate majors in domestic universities. At that time, the paleontology specialty at home and abroad was gradually saturated. However, it is undeniable that some new problems have emerged after the adjustment.

Many universities majoring in paleontology have not been rebuilt.

It is understood that in the new teaching plan after the resumption of enrollment, the class hours of this major in many colleges and universities are greatly reduced compared with before, which makes it difficult for many paleontology graduate students to systematically learn paleontology knowledge at the undergraduate or even postgraduate level, and in fact affects the cultivation of higher-level paleontology professionals.

"Today's students go to the paleontology major to study for a master's degree in their senior year, and they have almost no basic knowledge. This has greatly affected the professional progress and the ability to independently carry out field paleontological stratigraphic research. " A master student from China Geo University (Beijing) said.

Does "narrow face" affect the choice of major?

The study of paleontology and stratigraphy is of great significance for revealing the development history of the earth, understanding the origin and evolution of life on the earth, and the changes of paleogeography, paleoclimate and paleoenvironment. "However, if a large number of professionals in this major are trained, they can only serve the regional geological survey, and the area is narrow and the development space is narrow, which affects the training of professionals in paleontology and stratigraphy. This has discouraged many college students from choosing a major. " Shao Jidong believes.

At present, domestic geological prospecting units are really short of talents specializing in paleontological stratigraphy research, but they can't recruit them. Many undergraduate and graduate students majoring in paleontology and stratigraphy are reluctant to engage in pure paleontology after graduation. In this regard, Jia Zhihai believes that the lack of talents specializing in paleostratigraphy in domestic geological prospecting units is related to the nature of their work. At present, most geological prospecting units need paleontological talents who can work skillfully and have an understanding of most kinds of fossils. However, the training period of paleontology and stratigraphy professionals is long and professional, and at least a master's degree is needed to identify a certain fossil. Few people know all kinds of fossils very well now. In addition, because of the inheritance and professionalism of paleontology research, long-term sitting on the bench requires patience. Therefore, many graduate students majoring in paleontology choose to change careers after graduation.

There are also views that this is attributed to the industrialization and industrialization of colleges and universities. Jia Zhihai put forward his own view more directly: the reason is closely related to the utility of the whole society and China's higher education. At present, the curriculum of colleges and universities pursues the pragmatic principle popular in society, and "all for employment" has become the "only rule". All majors and courses that have little to do with employment are either cut off or ignored; On the contrary, it is particularly popular. In this regard, Wang Xun, vice president and doctoral supervisor of China Geo University, believes that under the current social situation, the employment rate of colleges and universities is closely related to the development of colleges and universities and even every subject they offer. The low employment rate for several years will seriously affect their future enrollment rate. Therefore, the courses in colleges and universities have to put the employment of students in the first place.

What are "professionals" worried about?

When it comes to the choice of majors, not many students have a certain understanding of paleontology and stratigraphy, including employment prospects, before they go to graduate school. "Actually, I originally chose this major because I ran a job fair in my sophomore year. The situation at that time was that if you chose to go to the enterprise after graduation, the requirements for students majoring in paleontology and stratigraphy were slightly lower, and you chose this major. " A graduate student majoring in paleontology and stratigraphy said in an interview with this reporter, "However, employment is really difficult. Compared with other majors in geology, the employment of paleontology and stratigraphy should be relatively poor. This major is suitable for research, not for production and application, because it can't directly see the benefits, so the employment is not good ... Most people choose to study for a doctorate and then turn to the research field. If they don't study for a doctorate, it will be difficult to find a suitable job. "

Obviously, this student can't accept the choice to work in geological prospecting units after graduation: "The current graduate education won't let you do pure paleontological fossil identification. Because fossil identification needs a long accumulation process. And accumulated for so long, come out, go to the geological team, who wants to? Many undergraduates went to the geological team for several years and came back to study. However, the current scientific research is to throw money into it. There are not many truly down-to-earth academic research. "

In view of the influence of external temptation on academic development, some people lament that, perhaps, in the past, "lifelong system" was easy to train excellent experts and make them willing to do something practical.

Who should the enrollment target be for?

In fact, it is not without advantages for China to develop paleontology specialty and train educational talents.

China has a vast territory. From a historical point of view, this rich storage of stratigraphic paleontology resources has been well preserved from Archaean billions of years ago to Late Pleistocene tens of thousands of years ago. Taking the study of early life evolution as an example, the North China Platform in China has continuous sedimentary rocks of Late Archean and Early Proterozoic spanning 2.5 billion years. All these provide "unique" favorable conditions for scientific discovery and research. Judging from the historical development and tradition of the discipline, although paleontology in China started relatively early, it has good advantages in tradition and international cooperation. As early as the 1920s, it began to cooperate with international countries to find and study fossils. In recent years, international cooperation has been continuously strengthened. As far as educational institutions are concerned, at present, many colleges and universities have established a relatively complete paleontology professional education system, and the student scale is also increasing year by year.

However, as far as the contradiction between professional education, discipline development and employment is concerned, real professional interest can not be ignored in talent training.

Richard ford (a member of the Royal Society) once said: "Paleontology is an individualistic profession. In today's world, which seems to be dominated by investment brokers and computer programmers, paleontologists still have some adventurous temperament. Those who find another way, go deep into the desert or wander in Shan Ye are time adventurers and prehistoric historians. "

A person in charge of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences holds the same view. He thinks that paleontology is not for everyone. A person in charge of the Chinese Paleontological Society also said that paleontology is a basic discipline, which needs a solid theoretical foundation and the research work is also very hard.

Taking the research direction of paleontology and stratigraphy in Peking University as an example, it can be divided into six categories: evolutionary biology (vertebrate paleontology and invertebrate paleontology), microfaunology, paleoecology, palaeogeography, comprehensive stratigraphy and sedimentary stratigraphy. Moreover, this does not include other courses selected outside the major.

"... paleontology needs to understand astronomy and geography! Do you know what the Milankovic cycle is? If the dead earth goes around the sun, glaciers will rise on the ground. Do you know what plate tectonics theory is? Is there anyone who turns his back on people as soon as he sees the flora on the ground rolling below the crust? Do you know what an ocean conveyor belt is? Is there any revolution in the whole ocean when the temperature and salinity change? "This post, which was once circulated on the Internet, entitled" You can't afford to be hurt by studying paleontology ",describes the heavy academic tasks of paleontology and stratigraphy students in the tone of robot cat Tom.

Students with non-undergraduate background in geosciences may have to pay more time and energy to study geosciences. The study of paleontology often does not need very cutting-edge biological knowledge. Moreover, for geosciences, great emphasis is placed on field experience. No matter what your background is, if you don't have solid domain knowledge, even if you study textbook knowledge hard, it's only "an armchair strategist" at best. Every new viewpoint of paleontology needs a large number of geological and fossil specimens as the basis. Sometimes, in order to find a valuable specimen, researchers need to search in the wild for more than ten years or even longer. This kind of occupation requires researchers to have a strong physique, but also needs the passion to contribute to their interests and careers.

Some people joke that paleontology stratigraphy is a noble profession. Foreign professional research is very rich and is done as a hobby. If you are a "rich second generation" or have a fearless spirit, then try it. □